A 22-year-old man today pleaded guilty to the murder of retired bus driver Mohammed Choudury in September.

Mr Choudury, a 50-year-old father of six, was found in a Bradford street by a passing ambulance crew having suffered severe head injuries.

A murder trial was due to start at the City's Crown Court today. But when Darren Rhodes came before The Honourable Mr Justice Henriques he pleaded guilty to the charge.

Debbie Andrews, 21, had also been accused of Mr Choudury's murder, but after she pleaded guilty to a charge of assisting an offender, a formal not guilty verdict was recorded in relation to the murder allegation.

Her barrister Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, explained that Andrews accepted helping to move the injured Mr Choudury from the living room of the couple's house in Heaton Road.

She also admitted concealing his personal effects and trying to clean blood from the carpet.

He did not make reference to a further allegation that she had attempted to conceal a hammer used in the attack.

Mr Bourne-Arton said Andrews was a woman with no previous conviction and Mr Justice Henriques agreed to adjourn her sentence for the preparation of a report on her.

The judge agreed with Rhodes's barrister, David Robson, QC, that in the circumstances of the case it would be appropriate for both defendants to be sentenced at the same time. They will be dealt with on July 31.

Rhodes was remanded in custody. But in renewing Andrews' bail, the judge stressed that all sentencing options would be open in her case.

Mr Choudury was found with severe head injuries at the junction of Scotchman Road and Heaton Road, Bradford, by a passing ambulance crew in the early hours of Saturday, September 23.

He was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary but was found to be dead on arrival.

Mr Choudury moved to England in 1977 from his home town of Gujarken in Rawalpindi and started working as a bus driver immediately.